“Convinced!” sneeringly interrupted the other; “there it is again; thrusting in sheer conjectures for evidence! I must call on the court to interpose with the stubborn and wilful fellow. Didn’t I tell you, sir, I’d have no more of your guess-work? Facts, sir, facts, or nothing.”
“Well, you shall have them, then,” replied the other, in a determined tone, “for I know enough facts to convince me, at least, of his guilt. Both before and after we started on our expedition, he threw out hints to me which I did not then quite understand, but which, since this affair, I have recalled, and now know what they meant. He hinted, if I would fall into his plan and keep council, we might——”
“Might what?” sharply demanded the excited and alarmed attorney. “Do you know you are under oath, sir? Might what, I say?”
“Might get all the furs into our hands, and——”
“Traitor! liar! scoundrel!” exclaimed Gaut Gurley, in a tone that sounded like the hiss of a serpent, as he bent forward and glared upon Elwood, with an expression so absolutely fiendish as to make every one in the room pause and shudder, and as to be remembered and recounted, months afterwards, in connection with events which seemed destined to spring from this worse than fruitless trial.
“You was going to say,” said the attorney for the prosecution, here eagerly pricking up and turning to the interrupted and now evidently discomposed witness,—“you was going to say, he proposed that he and you should take all the furs to yourselves, and so rob the rest of the company!”
“I can’t tell the words; but I think he meant that,” replied Elwood, in more subdued tones.
“O ho,” exclaimed Gaut’s lawyer; “you now think, that is, you guess, he meant something that you didn’t dream of his meaning at the time he uttered it. Pretty evidence this; make the most of it!”
“We will,” said the opposite counsel; “and I request the court to take it all down, together with the prisoner’s exclamations of traitor, etc., which involves, indirectly, an admission that I shall remark on in the argument. Yes, let all this be noted carefully. It is important. It goes to show the previous design, which, coupled with the identified furs, is, I trust the court will see, sufficient to fix the crime on the respondent, beyond all doubt or question.”
“We will soon show you how much you will make out of your identified furs,” rejoined the other lawyer, with a confident and defiant air.